Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) Plc Update on Wressle, North Lincolnshire

 
TIDMEOG 
 
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas 
 
1 August 2018 
 
          Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc ('Europa' or 'the Company') 
 
                     Update on Wressle, North Lincolnshire 
 
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the UK and Ireland focussed oil and gas 
exploration, development and production company, notes today's update from 
Egdon Resources ('Egdon') which advises that its application to North 
Lincolnshire Council ('NLC') to extend planning consent for the Wressle oil 
field development on PEDL 180 in the East Midlands ('the Application') was 
refused. 
 
Europa notes that the board of Egdon intends to appeal this decision without 
delay and will begin preparing documentation on receipt of the Committee's 
decision notice. 
 
Europa has a 30% working interest in Wressle alongside Egdon (operator, 30%), 
Union Jack Oil (27.5%), and Humber Oil & Gas Limited (12.5%) ('the Joint 
Venture partners').  Egdon`s full RNS including Notes is reproduced at the end 
of this release. 
 
Europa's CEO, Hugh Mackay, said: "It is disappointing to note today's decision 
by the NLC, particularly when considering that this application had received 
support from North Lincolnshire County Council's planning officers.  The board 
of Egdon has been forthright in its intention to appeal this decision and we 
will stand by for further updates in due course. 
 
"Bringing Wressle on-stream would augment our current net daily production to 
approximately 250 bopd and generate a valuable revenue stream for reinvestment 
across our multi-stage portfolio of licences onshore UK and offshore Ireland. 
With this in mind, we remain hopeful of a resolution to the outstanding issues 
to ensure a satisfactory outcome for all parties." 
 
Egdon`s RNS published today is as follows: 
 
Egdon Resources plc (AIM:EDR) advises that its application to extend planning 
consent for the Wressle site to 1 August 2019 was refused at today's meeting of 
the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee ("the Committee"). The 
application had been recommended for approval by North Lincolnshire County 
Council's planning officers. 
 
Mark Abbott, Managing Director of Egdon Resources plc, said: 
 
"The decision of the Committee is clearly disappointing given that the 
application had been recommended for approval by North Lincolnshire Council's 
own professional planning officers, that an appeal for a previous refusal of 
such an application had been successful and that we have recently submitted a 
new application for the development of the Wressle oil field which we strongly 
believe comprehensively addresses the reasons for the refusal of the original 
planning applications and the subsequent appeals. 
 
"We intend to appeal this decision without delay and will begin preparing 
documentation on receipt of the Committee's decision notice." 
 
Notes to Editors: 
 
Planning history: 
 
On 11 January 2017, North Lincolnshire Council refused planning consent for the 
original application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field at Lodge 
Farm, Wressle, North Lincolnshire. 
 
On 7 February 2017, Egdon announced that it would both appeal the decision of 
11 January 2017 and in parallel submit a new Planning Application for the 
Wressle development which would include even more detailed information to 
address the specific concerns outlined by North Lincolnshire Council in their 
refusal. 
 
On 11 April 2017, Egdon submitted an appeal against North Lincolnshire 
Council's decision to refuse planning consent. 
 
On 28 April 2017, Egdon submitted a new application for the Wressle Development 
including additional detailed information to address the specific concerns 
raised by North Lincolnshire Council in its 11 January 2017 decision to refuse 
the original application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field. 
 
On 19 May 2017, Egdon announced the issue by the Environment Agency of the 
variation to the Mining Waste Permit for the planned Wressle field development 
and associated operations. 
 
On 3 July 2017, the new planning application was also refused.  The variation 
of the existing planning for the site requesting a twelve month extension was 
also refused at the same meeting. 
 
During November 2017, a planning inquiry was held to consider the two appeals 
for development approval and the appeal of the variation of the existing 
planning for the site.  On 5 January 2018, we announced that the Inspector had 
rejected the appeals by Egdon against the two planning refusals by North 
Lincolnshire County Council's Planning Committee.  However, the Planning 
Inspectorate did uphold Egdon's appeal against the decision to refuse the 
application to retain the existing planning for the well site, which is was 
retained until the 28 April 2018. 
 
A new application to extend the current planning consent was submitted on 13 
April 2018 and refused 8 August 2018 and the company announced its intention to 
appeal the decision 
 
On 5 July we announced the submission to North Lincolnshire Council of a new 
planning application for the development of the Wressle oil field. 
 
Egdon Resources plc (LSE: EDR) is an established UK-based exploration and 
production company focused on onshore exploration and production in the 
hydrocarbon-producing basins of the UK. 
 
Egdon holds interests in 44 licences in the UK and has an active programme of 
exploration, appraisal and development within its portfolio of oil and gas 
assets.  Egdon is an approved operator in the UK. 
 
Egdon was formed in 1997 and listed on AIM in December 2004. 
 
In accordance with the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil and Gas Companies, 
the information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and signed off 
by the Managing Director of Egdon Resources plc Mark Abbott, a Geoscientist 
with over 26 years' experience. 
 
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to 
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations 
(EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement via 
Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now 
considered to be in the public domain. 
 
                                 * * ENDS * * 
 
For further information please visit www.europaoil.com or contact: 
 
Hugh Mackay       Europa                        + 44 (0) 20 7224 
                                                3770 
 
Phil Greenhalgh   Europa                        + 44 (0) 20 7224 
                                                3770 
 
Matt Goode        finnCap Ltd                   + 44 (0) 20 7220 
                                                0500 
 
Simon Hicks       finnCap Ltd                   + 44 (0) 20 7220 
                                                0500 
 
Frank Buhagiar    St Brides Partners Ltd        + 44 (0) 20 7236 
                                                1177 
 
Susie Geliher     St Brides Partners Ltd        + 44 (0) 20 7236 
                                                1177 
 
Notes 
 
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio of multi-stage 
hydrocarbon assets that includes production, exploration and development 
interests, in countries that are politically stable, have transparent licensing 
processes, and offer attractive terms. In 2017 Europa produced 113 boepd. Its 
highly prospective exploration projects include the Wressle development in the 
UK (targeting production start-up in 2018 at 500 bopd gross) and six licences 
offshore Ireland with the potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective 
resources of 6.2 billion barrels oil equivalent and 2.5 tcf undiscovered GIIP 
across all six licences. 
 
Qualified Person Review 
 
This release has been reviewed by Hugh Mackay, Chief Executive of Europa, who 
is a petroleum geologist with 30 years' experience in petroleum exploration and 
a member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, American 
Association of Petroleum Geologists and Fellow of the Geological Society. Mr 
Mackay has consented to the inclusion of the technical information in this 
release in the form and context in which it appears. 
 
 
 
END 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 01, 2018 11:32 ET (15:32 GMT)